Cybersecurity leaders play an integral role in developing comprehensive cybersecurity and risk management strategies that align with business goals, fostering collaboration across business units for a holistic security posture. This represents a shift from their earlier technical roles focused on foundational security measures.
Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, the adoption of generative AI has significantly expanded the risk and compliance landscape, presenting new challenges for security leaders in safeguarding their organizations according to Christopher Burger, CISO at tech consulting firm Slalom.
In this article, you will learn about five ways in which CISO roles are evolving and what you can do to adapt.
Table of Contents
How CISO Role is Evolving and How You Can Adapt?
1. Higher Degree of Business Integration
2. Trust Is More Important Than Ever Before
3. Growing Regulatory Pressures
4. Their Influence Is Growing
5. Translating Technology Into Business Strategy
How CISO Role is Evolving and How You Can Adapt?
Here are five ways in which the CISO role is evolving.
- Higher Degree of Business Integration
Patricia Titus, CISO at Booking Holdings said, “A major attack has been on the tip of the tongues of executives who want to make sure we do everything we can to avoid a major attack, but there’s now an appreciation that it could happen to anyone.”
Due to this, cybersecurity leaders are more integrated into business than ever before. This is why it is even more important for CISOs to learn strategies to align what they do at both control and company level with the business objectives. Instead of just focusing on cybersecurity controls, they should put more emphasis on company wide policies. CISO role has changed from developing cybersecurity frameworks to more strategic risk management role.
- Trust Is More Important Than Ever Before
In order to build a security brand and make cybersecurity a shared responsibility, CISOs will have to develop relationships with key stakeholders and work closely with other C-suite executives. With the advent of generative AI, deep fakes are all the rage. They are forcing cybersecurity leaders to adopt different cybersecurity mechanisms to secure their employees and data.
According to Andrew Stanley, CISO at Mars, “Trust is the hardest thing to earn and the easiest to destroy. The opportunity we have as C-level executives is to demonstrate what are the mechanisms of trust. … We have some of that muscle, but we have to redeploy it away from a sense of defense to productive skepticism.”
- Growing Regulatory Pressures
Cybersecurity leaders are now being bombarded with new regulations every few months. Sometimes, these regulations have strict deadlines, which forces cybersecurity leaders to implement the changes quickly.This puts extra pressure on cybersecurity leaders and increases the risk of errors.
According to David Hull, CISO at ISG, “The CISO is expected and required to function across the business operations landscape, from obtaining cyber insurance coverage to assuring clients, vendors or suppliers of a strong security posture and the ability to recover quickly in the event of a major incident.”
- Their Influence Is Growing
Today, CISOs enjoy more influence in the company than they have ever done in the past. Cybersecurity leaders can build credibility by delivering on what they say. They can also play a crucial role in improving cybersecurity resilience of your business. They also have their say into whether the company should cheap Vps hosting or opt for a buy dedicated server.
For that, they will have to reduce the risk. Think about how you can make better use of technology. Rinki Sethi, CISO of Bill thinks that, “CISO role needs to evolve further both in reporting structure at most companies and in the standard protections offered to CISOs as an officer of the company.”
- Translating Technology Into Business Strategy
Olivia Rose, CISO and Founder of Rose CISO Group and faculty member at IANS research, summed it up brilliantly when she said, “CISOs have to translate technical controls to company-level strategies so they make sense. Executives and board members do not understand what cloud entitlements are in the cloud, but the CISO needs to translate that as “This is a tool which detects, identifies and remediates risks associated with identity.”
How is the CISO role evolving and what steps are you taking to adapt to it? Share it with us in the comments section below.
